If they were the last car dealer on Earth, you're better off walking.
If you enjoy bait-and-switch pricing, mysterious disappearing car parts, missing titles, worthless add-ons, and phone calls into the void, Shottenkirk Toyota of Granbury may be just the dealership for you. We found a vehicle advertised online for approximately $14,000. Oddly enough, by the time we arrived at the dealership, this same $14,000 car had somehow blossomed into a $19,000 car. Apparently several thousand dollars had materialized in the form of window tinting, clear coat, insurance products, and assorted other things we neither wanted nor went there to buy. After the usual exhausting negotiations, we finally purchased the car for approximately $17,000. That, unfortunately, was the high point of the experience. The vehicle was missing a part when it was sold. Months later, we still don’t have it. At one point my son actually received a text telling him the part was there. He drove to the dealership to pick it up. It wasn’t there. Calls go unreturned. Messages disappear. Voicemails are supposedly left with people who don’t seem to exist. There is always another explanation, another person to call, another delay, and another reason why whatever was promised hasn’t happened yet. Then there’s the wonderful insurance/add-on experience. My son was sold what the dealership represented to us as windshield protection that would replace a damaged windshield. When we actually contacted the company providing the coverage, we discovered that the policy apparently covers chip repair—the sort of repair for which you can buy a kit for about $15. Apparently “windshield repair” has a remarkably flexible definition when you’re sitting in the finance office signing papers. And then there’s the title. They lost it. Then they told us they found it. And yet, somehow, we still don’t have it. Perhaps the title is hanging out somewhere with the missing part. One final bit of perspective on that original $14,000 internet price: two months after the purchase, the car suffered severe hail damage and was declared a total loss by State Farm. State Farm initially valued the vehicle at about $11,000. We hired an independent appraisal company, which valued it at approximately $15,500. Interesting numbers. The independent appraiser’s $15,500 valuation was considerably closer to Shottenkirk’s original internet price of roughly $14,100 than to the approximately $17,400 we ultimately paid after all the dealership’s additions. Buying the car was difficult. Getting promises honored afterward has been worse. My impression is simple: they were extraordinarily attentive while they were trying to get our money. Once they had it, the level of interest changed dramatically. If I could do it over again, I would buy elsewhere. I would not recommend Shottenkirk Toyota of Granbury to anyone.
By JJS